Quote:
Originally Posted by astronobob
It is an amazing accomplishment, many people, minds, time money etc, but when looked at from the physical side, sheeze what is the Risk-Factor if something goes wrong, I dont care how smart, powerful computation, Safety material and regulatory construction protocol, FAA etc etc etc is,, Something catastrophic one would think is eventually inevitable,,,
Considering a 70Meter tall 10Meter Diam booster hurtling down toward a friggen landing area that has massive amounts a fuel storage tanks (How full is this Tank Farm anyway after filling the booster and ship, 10% 25% or 50% using half for one Launch ?) what happens if the Raptor re-ignition fails, if two re-ignite or only one - yep excitement guaranteed.
You thought the Launch when all the Concrete from the Pad went skyward for hundreds of meters was something,
its just an insane risk, dont get me wrong, full credit for taking that risk necessary for the StarShip Programm, damn Gutsiest achievement by Mankind this century 
Oh, maybe another ' smaller' water deluge system protecting the Tower and vital components during the Catch and another swiveling fire hose to aim up into the engine bay to put out any continuing hazardous flame offs.. 
Have to say when being caught i thought the booster was too fast and was going to hit, came dam close actually amazing |
Space flight is risky business and failure is part of accomplishing great things.
I don’t think they would have committed to a catch if the risk elements were beyond their extremely tight Go No Go parameters.
If a raptor failed or the guidance went into gimbal lock and wiped out the tower , launch pad and surrounding area , they would just rebuild it and start all over again ( no human life was at risk )
It’s when human life is at risk that error must be 100% mitigated or as close to perfection that humans can make it.
The catch attempt was worth the risk for success
As far as the catch goes , seeing the booster hurtling down to earth at phenomenal speeds I was holding my breath, but once the booster slowed down to about 100m above the tower with really precise movements , I knew in myself they’re going to bloody nail this catch , and they did.
Wow what a day in history for space flight and aeronautics.